The Hunt

 The purpose of a hunting trip is to fill the freezer with meat for the winter, and in this regard our south end hunting trip was very successful.  We harvested 5 deer and ended up with around 220 pounds of packaged meat. Better yet the meat is excellent!  I already made a meal from one of the backstraps and the, usually lean cut of meat, was marbled with fat - just like beef.  

We also harvested 2 'steer' deer.   These are male deer that are born sterile.  I gather that it is not a genetic condition, but that it is related to their mother's diet during gestation.  In any case, without all the male hormones coursing through their veins they are much fatter than normal bucks with milder tasting meat.  Their antlers also stay in velvet and tend to have wild configurations.

I am pretty certain that we saw one of the individual steer deer that we harvested this year during last year's hunt.  Last year we harvest a buck who was bedded next to a steer deer that I photographed and videoed as he ran off.  This year we harvested a steer deer in the exact same bed the steer deer was in last year and he resembles the deer from last year.  Pretty amazing coincidence!

Patrick